Here is some good news about Israel and Palestine that has not appeared in our daily news cycle.

In June this year the foreign ministers of Australia, the UK and Canada announced that they would establish the International Peace Fund for Israelis and Palestinians.

Minister Penny Wong said the fund will help strengthen the voices of moderates and marginalise the extremists.

She said peace “requires sustained effort to rebuild trust, to strengthen cooperation and to highlight the shared humanity of people”.

The fund will invest in programs that advance a two-state solution, help reduce division, strengthen civil society, and support dialogue and cooperation within and between Israeli and Palestinian communities, building the foundations for peace.

The initial funding for the fund will only be $5.8 million, hoping that many more nations will add to this.

The Palestinian and Israeli peace movements have been growing in their cooperation.

In May this year far-right Zionist extremists carried out their annual 'Flag March' in Jerusalem, chanting 'death to Arabs'.

The peace movement mounted an interfaith response.

The Palestinian and Jewish-led Standing Together organised hundreds of activists to provide a protective presence, using their bodies and their non-violent training to help de-escalate and shield Palestinian residents of the Old City from attack.

The next day, peace-building organisations Tag Meir and Women Wage Peace flipped the script, leading a Flower March.

In June, Palestinians and Israelis from the peace movement participated in a Paris summit hosted by the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The input from Palestinian and Israeli peace-builders is assisting in shaping the efforts of governments to respond to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

John van Riet, Wangaratta South

Strengthening family violence laws in Victoria

Victim-survivors deserve a justice system that listens to them, protects them and holds perpetrators to account.

The Victorian government this week introduced legislation to strengthen protections for victim-survivors by criminalising coercive control, strengthening intervention orders and increasing protections against discrimination.

The effects of coercive control are pervasive and traumatic.

It can cause immediate and long-term harm, and is a known precursor to intimate partner homicide.

The reforms create a new standalone offence for coercive control of an intimate partner, carrying a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison to reflect the severity of this behaviour.

As coercive control can be complex and subtle, the prosecution won't need to prove physical or mental harm has occurred for a person to be found guilty - only that the accused should have understood their conduct would probably cause harm.

The Bill also removes 'good character' as a mitigating factor in sentencing, ensuring offenders cannot rely on their reputation to get a lesser sentence.

This will also help reduce the trauma experienced by victim-survivors who have been forced to sit through glowing character references for the person who harmed them.

Discrimination against people impacted by family violence will be prohibited in key areas of public life, including in the workplace, thanks to new reforms designed to reduce further exposure to mistreatment outside of the home.

Changes to family violence intervention orders (FVIOs) and personal safety intervention orders (PSIOs) will help ensure people protected by these orders will be kept safer for longer.

A court will be able to extend or change an FVIO at the end of related criminal proceedings, removing the need for a further application or for victim-survivors to return to court where there is a clear risk to their safety.

The court must seek the views of the protected person before deciding to change or extend an intervention order, making sure victim-survivors' needs are prioritised and their voices are heard.

In cases where the offender is sentenced to prison for a family violence offence, the default length for extending an FVIO will be the length of the total sentence plus 12 months, giving greater security during periods of heightened risk.

In criminal proceedings where a pre-existing FVIO is in place, police will also be required to record this information and indicate if an application to extend or vary the FVIO may be made.

This will encourage earlier and more streamlined consideration of changes needed to better protect the victim-survivor, where appropriate.

The legislation will strengthen protections for children by clarifying that PSIOs may be made against adults engaging in grooming behaviour, which is deeply disturbing, profoundly harmful and often pre-empts sexual violence.

Victim-survivors and vulnerable Victorians will also have better access to social justice initiatives in the fines system thanks to the expansion of the Work and Development Permit (WDP) and Family Violence Scheme (FVS).

People experiencing vulnerability or hardship who satisfy the eligibility criteria for the scheme will be able to work off unpaid court fines, not just infringement fines, through a WDP.

The FVS will be available for any victim-survivor who receives a fine for excessive speeding detected by road safety cameras who was not the driver but, due to family violence, cannot nominate the driver or reject a false nomination.

These reforms build on the landmark Justice Legislation Amendment (Family Violence, Stalking and Other Matters) Act 2026 and the 2016 Royal Commission into Family Violence.

Jaclyn Symes, MP for Northern Victoria